Developing a Magazine for Essays

[SeattleGhostWriter]

The past couple of days, I have done some research as to where one may be able to publish essays. While there are some specific journals that I am personally aware of, there seems to not be a whole lot of interest for contemporary essays - nor an interest in publishing them.

Here, then, is my idea.

Create, establish and advertise a Magazine publication that is geared toward publishing essays.

The idea is rough so please bare with me on this.

There are particular categories within this publication.

Current Affairs and Social Issues Essay - These essays are either in a persuasive or informative concept. The premise of these essays are devoted to particular current and social issues of American Society. Some topics may delve into Labor Reform, Health Care Reform, Same-Sex marriage, Rise in Violent Crime, Economic issues, etc.

Contemporary Religious Ideals - These essays are either Informative, persuasive, or critical in their approach. They must be based on objective and logical reasoning and consistency. Topics may range from Religious influence in today's market place, Religious culture, Inspirational thoughts, or any topics that are relevant in todays society.

Comparative Religion - These essays are of either persuasive and critical essay formats. They are examining current orthodox, heterodoxy, or unorthodoxy teachings of various religious groups. These are not to be "opinionated" based religions and will require fact-checking to substantiate one's argument. These essays also will be treated as essays that another contributor or non-contributer writer may write as a rebuttal to such findings and conclusions.

US History, legacy, and Patriotism - These essays deal primarily on an Informative Essay technique. The writer is not to persuade their reader, or critique anything, the simplicity of these essays are to provide interesting information as to American History and American Culture. Such essays could be on topics as Separation of Church and State, Why we have the First Amendment, George Washington's Political Principles.

History of Religious Thought - These essays ought to include the Informative, Persuasive, or Critical analysis of various historical religious belief systems, movements, and doctrines in Western Culture and Civilization. They are not to include "historical conspiracy theories". One essay may be on Ancient Israelite Polytheism, or Egyptian Monotheism.

Historical and Contemporary Philosophy - These essays deal strictly with the various philosophical schools of thought, how they have evolved, impacted our society and culture, various Apologia in Philosophy. They can be informative, persuasive, or critical.

Moving from the type of Essay contents the magazine will hopefully publish is that of Peer-Review.

Normally, most magazines have Acquisition Editors who review potential contributing articles for particular publications. Instead of having a staff of editors. My hope is to build a framework of contributing writers that also provide a panel - peer review. What this means is that, for example, there are six contributing writers to this publication. Two handle one Essay category. What they do is write content for that particular category and then share their essay with the other and provide a formal critique of the writing. In the case of an essay that is queried, it is passed off to the entire contributing writers who will provide their own review of the article (based on an established peer review format), collectively share these thoughts, and then vote to either accept the Essay, or decline the Essay. If the Essay is accepted, the writer who queried will receive their essay back with one collective peer review feedback as to how to edit, rewrite, research, and produce a final draft for a second peer review process.

Next, one thing I am considering is that this magazine will be published through www.magcloud.com. All one has to do is upload a final .pdf formated document and the rest is taken care of. It is a POD for Magazines. The cost is automatically figured in to the sales of the Magazine (which is explained on the website). Because of this, there is the idea that the magazine will not be a paying market magazine, but those authors who have their essays published will receive a complimentary subscription to the magazine itself. Another concept I am toying around here with is to make it where those who want to be a contributing writer for this publication and part of the peer -review panel, there is a membership fee for the periodical. This membership fee will be established to cover the cost of subscriptions (each member will receive one), establish a treasury where there can be a contest call for particular themed essays in each category (which may or may not include a reading fee which is common with most contests), and quite possibly allow a nominal fee to those whose submissions are accepted through the two-tiered peer review processes.

So, with all this, those who are in the publishing industry, would you like to provide your insights on this, any comments, suggestions, concerns?

Would there be a small profit for me? Yes, but very limited and it will be established by those who wish to come aboard as a peer review panelist and contributing writer.

I am also thinking of doing a "donations" type for the publication.

Again, thank you in advance for your comments, questions, suggestions, or concerns.

[SeattleGhostWriter]

Not a single Bite eh???

[Justin91]

Sounds interesting. Have you considered an E-zine?

[mljoshua]

Personally - I love the idea, sounds like a pretty big project - but I'd love to be able to post some essays - (though I'm new here.)

[jerrywaxler]

Hi Seattle,

What could be bad? I too have poked around a bit looking for venues for my essays, which is why I ended up creating my own blog. Now that I have 180+ I am pretty confident about my content and style, and was starting to look around for literary journals where I could publish, so your idea is certainly right up my alley.

I think maybe in reading your idea, that it will require a lot of collaboration, so depending on how one looks at it, it could be a wonderful opportunity to "get in on the ground floor" from a really positive point of view, or since most of us are busy, and overwhelmed (I know I am) it sounds like work.

So at the very least, I would like to jump in and say "Great idea, go for it." I suspect if you really pour your heart into this for a couple of years it could eventually pay off. This is exactly the way many successful sites get started. Also, consider all the interesting people you would meet and skills and experience you'd gain along the way.

Best wishes,
Jerry

[AgentJade]

Hi Seattle,

If you really want to do it, then go for it! I wish you luck. I think the suggestion to consider an E-zine is a good one to consider...it would cut costs in the beginning, when you're looking to establish your publication.

I spent two years working for an academic publisher as a production editor, overseeing the production of peer-review research journals. Academic peer-reviews are somewhat different of course, but it's still a model similar to the kind of publication you're describing.

A word on the operation costs: Based on what I know from my (albeit limited) experience, I do think that it will likely be a lot of work and probably will have little, if any, profit involved. Most profits in the world of academic journal publishing are made via institutional subscriptions (that is, university libraries) and online subscriptions (electronic subscriptions mean producing a product once and then getting people to pay for it over and over again! So brilliant.).

I don't want to dissuade you, and I could be wrong, but it is a difficult kind of publication to turn a profit on. Smaller, independent publishing companies keep folding and getting acquired by giant ones (like the one I worked for—we had three enormous acquisitions during my short tenure). But this is all, again, my only-somewhat-educated opinion on operation costs with peer-review publications.

However, two suggestions I do have on some of the details:

1. If I read your OP correctly, you were considering having the peer-review editors pay a membership fee? I would personally not do this — reason being that I think it will be difficult to attract reviewers willing to pay to edit the publication. Peer review can be a long and involved process—academic turnover is usually about 3–6 months, though then again this also owes to high submission volume.

2. If I read your OP correctly, your essays were going to be contributed only by the editing panel, yes? How often do you plan to publish? Annually? Quarterly?

If you plan to publish more often than once or twice a year, I also suggest that you allow outside contributors to submit essays for consideration. I think you'll find that asking a small core of people to contribute (and intensely review) enough essays to fill a publication more often than once or twice a year might run into paper flow issues.


Just my $.02! Again good luck with the project.